Can data files be changed between turns?

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

"We propose a Partnership treaty."
"We accept."
"Your cities will burn with our vengeful fire!"

[Gandalf Parker]

Ive always thought that random AI changes would be fun anyway. Maybe not mid-game but generating more variety than Ive seen. I can see some interesting results.

A) If you have ship in their space then they love you, but if you fight them and lose they hate you (disdain of weak nations?)

B) If you have planets in their space then they love you, but if there are enemy ships in their space they hate you (you have failed to proect our common interests)

C) if you turn down trades from them they love you but if you give them gifts they hate you (Id rather face a shrewd trader than a false friend)

Maybe I could make a program to scramble the neutral races. Or even add to them. If I toss in an ImageMagick file then I could even randomly alter a few colors on the BMP files to give each a unique flag. Maybe even a unique portrait altho the easiest thing would be to select one portait and decalre them all to be offshoots.
MUHAHAHahahaaa Ive always loved pogramming randoms
Gandalf Parker

[Possum]

This is an interesting idea indeed.

Or you could have a race that has "seasons". Six months out of the year they are passive and easy-going, and then the last 4 months (10 months per SE4 year, remember), they have their "mating season", and get wildly aggressive and warlike.

In fact this opens up all sorts of ideas...

[Gandalf Parker]

Stargate Atlantis:
the Wraiths hibernate for years and then awaken to ravage every planet they can reach. They are quiet until you actually make contact, then you set off their alarms and they boil forth.

[Gandalf Parker]

Hmmm...
if I write a Basic program I can run it on my linux servers to create downloadable zips of neutralraces. As far as I can tell the game doesnt have to be told how many neutrals to select from, if you put more in that directory then it will use it no matter what mod you are using.

I may have to play with the naming convention though. Does it have to be named in numerical sequence? Im thinking the answer is no so I can use random file names as long as the references to the nations files are correct.

The designname files would be the messiest. I would have to select randomly from the generic collection in order to make sure its there.

[Urendi Maleldil]

Since the AI files can be changed during the game, you could definately create a program that ran in the background and changed the AI randomly. (one turn they're EEE, the next turn they're EEEvil)

But I wold be more interested in a program that would respond to changes within the game. It might be possible to make a program that runs in the background and interprets SE4 log files to make changes to the AI depending on what happens in the game.

[Parasite]

If you are playing against a race and do not have their race files, a random one that does exist is used. Looks like you have what you want with out any programming. The race you play against is changed each time you reload the game.